2016 -Two weddings - and a holiday

Off we go - again

Monday 11th July.

So we have just moved house in Brisbane for the 4th time in 18 months.  We have put our dog, Yoshi, with friends.  We have planned the trips and booked the hotels and flights.  We have bought the wedding frocks and suits.  We are ready, lets go! Onto the plane and up up and away.

Leaving,  on a jet plane..................

Settling into Rooks Hill for a few days with Judy and Nigel, (thanks).  The weather is very typically English since we arrived, sun and showers. We slept well last night and today had a great time in a visit to Wisley Gardens.  Simon already here, Tom, Robin and Ayla in the air.

A spaceman made of plants!

Jane in the rain, check out the fashionable footwear!

And by the way, whist we have been here the UK has decided to have a new Prime Minister, so we have been keeping up with the political shenanigans. The BBC coverage has been depressingly populist where they interrupt the news every few minutes to ask some punter in the street "what they think" of whatever is currently happening. Oh dear what has happened to the BBC?

Its never too busy to stop and smell the roses

Merry Christmas to all our Readers

The Devonian Period

It's a Saturday, 20th December 2014, and Jane and I are cleaning around and packing up the cottage we have been staying in in Devon since 3rd October 2014.  When we arrived here outré plan was to stay for two months then continues our Gap Year travels staying with friends in Toronto, New York and Miami before having Christmas with my sister and her family in Orlando, Florida.  How the best laid plans of mice and men can go awry!

Merry Christmas everybody.

In very brief summary, Jane was not only diagnosed with bowel cancer, but thanks to the quick ministrations of the UK National Health Service she was diagnosed, admitted to hospital, operated upon, discharged and, according to the consultant surgeon, cured, within a apace of 8 days!  Now that what I call service.  Any follow up treatments will now happen in Australia to where we will return in early January 2015.

Tomorrow we drive to Jane's sister's house in Bramley to have a relatively quiet Christmas there before finally packing up and returning to the UK, with Jane in particular leaving a little more of herself behind here than she may originally have anticipated.

Ian outside an historic pile.

Our time here has been spent in the lovely village of Blackawton, off the beaten tourist track but a just a few miles from Dartmouth and Totnes and an hour south of Exeter.  The weather here since we arrived has been pretty wet and windy, but interspersed with some glorious sunny days too when we have escaped into the Devon countryside and just enjoyed being here.  Great local pubs and restaurants to snuggle into when its too awful to go outside much.

We have visited all the local National Trust houses including Greenway, Agatha Christies seaside house, Saltram House and may other more historic piles.  Walks along deserted beaches and windswept cliff tops have rounded out the experience, between various trips to hospital.  A trip to London also took in the poppies at the Tower.

The poppies at the Tower of London

Jane is recovering brilliantly now and we look forward to seeing or hearing from you all again the New Year. Have a very merry Christmas and a really wonderful New Year .

We leave you with a selection of photos from our time here in Devon.

View from Darmouth over to Kingswear

Buckland Abbey, house of Sir Francis Drake.

Love and peace to you all

The rood screen in Blackawton Church, with Advent candles.  Beautiful.

Ian and Jane

Sailing in the Ionian Islands

Prologue: Its 30th November in real time and a few things have happened here in Devon since my last upload of the post about Prague on the 11th November, but we won’t dwell on them here, their time will come.  Suffice to say this Blog is a positive way of spending some time as Jane is recuperating very well. 

Corfu and Paxos

We flew out of Prague (flight #17 in the trip so far) for Corfu on the afternoon of Wednesday 24th September.  It’s a 3 hour flight.

For those that don’t know the place, it is a Greek island, one of the largest of the Ionian Islands, off the west coast of mainland Greece. Here is a map.

We landed late in the evening and took a taxi from the Airport to the hotel, about 20 minutes drive away.  Greek thing #1. Taxis don’t have meters anymore.  Very friendly taxi driver immediately launched into a Greek “woe is us” story about the very broken Greek economy and struggling tourism industry.  We discovered when we arrived that all taxi rides in Corfu cost 20 euro (for tourists), unless they are very short (15 euro) or very long (25 euro - Corfu is not a very big island).

We had booked a hotel room overnight on the inter web and we rolled up at 10.30pm hoping for a hot bath and a comfy bed.  Greek thing #2.  Bath plugs are not allowed in Greek hotels!  So we stuffed a plastic bag and flannel in the plughole, had a middling cool bath and dreamt about a weeks glorious sailing in the late summer Mediterranean sun.

Thumbs up in the rain in Corfu. It can only get better!

The next day it started out dull and moved to pouring rain by mid morning!  We were due to go to the marina at Gouvia and meet up with David and Barbara at 3pm, mercifully the rain stopped in time for the short (15 euro) trip down and there they were unwrapping the boat.  

Hello Barbara, Hello Remilla.

David and Barbara are old friends from the time when Jane and I first lived together in our little 2 up, 2 down house in West Ealing, London. They were newly married too and lived across the road. Happy, carefree pre-children, full-on house renovation days.  David retired a few years ago and pursued a lifetime’s dream to buy a cruising boat, and with Barbara as the willing mate, they have spent two years sailing to and around the Mediterranean, arriving in Corfu a month ago.  This was our chance to catch-up with them before the boat is laid up for the winter months.

Looks who is in charge, or "at the helm" in sea speak. Look at the sky!

And what a wonderful week we had.  The boat “Remilla", is a Bowman 40 ft, a great floating home with all mod cons for the live-in sailor, comfy berths, even heating if the weather turns chilly.  The only problem we had was that there was no freezer for the ice cubes in the G&Ts! We stowed all our sailing clothes, had our safety briefing, and then sat in dock for a day waiting for better weather!

Now look who is aft the helm.  David keeping lookout for things that need to be looked out for!

Then off we set, cruising the Ionian sea. We enjoyed a circular mini-cruise incorporating Mourtos on the Greek mainland, Lakka on Paxos, with its turquoise, clear water, Gaios, then back to Gouvia.

What a wonderful week it was.  Mostly slowly sailing around the islands, not enough wind for David and me really but the girls enjoyed the sunbathing and the easy work in the galley as there was no sudden tacking or gybing around.  Jane even had fun “driving” Remilla for many hours, as we took turns at the helm. 

Oh the decisions, lamb, or beef, or fish?

 The sea was clear, the sky was blue, the sun was autumnally hot, we saw dolphins and turtles, there was much eating of fresh seafood and yummy spit roast lamb in port side Tavernas.  Greek thing #3, no printed receipts.  The only retail outlets that provided us printed receipt and took credit cards whilst in Greece were the big supermarket and the Marina.  Everywhere else it was cash!   

We did love being tourists in Greece.  The people were friendly, the food was satisfying and relatively cheap, and being somewhat at the end of season, the restaurants, marinas and tourist places were not particularly busy. It was easy to find a suitable anchorage each evening, and the G&Ts tasted particularly fine with a beautiful harbour or ocean view to hand, after the late afternoon swim. 

Retirement suits us!

There were no particular visits to historical ancient Greek sites this time. The old walled town of Corfu itself is mostly Venetian, much like the old Croatian costal town, but here with a later mostly Napoleonic and then British overlay, including a cricket oval and sailing club!  The Greeks we met were as laid back as ever and all really pleased to have us as tourists in their country. The food was good Mediterranean fare, and the ouzo was as rugged as ever,  local wines were very enjoyable and the mangey cats and dogs that seemed to hang around everywhere in Greece were all still there. Loved the place!

Gaios harbourfront.

So the week breezed by and all too soon we were heading back to Gouvia marina for a last meal in Harry’s Taverna and then up early the next morning for a short (15 euro) taxi ride to the airport!  Thanks for a magnificent Ionian cruise David and Barbara, see you in Dorset sometime soon.

Harry's Taverna, thanks for the memories, D&B.

So, Greek thing #4, without any customs or immigration checks whatsoever, (but yes, with the usual security frisk-down) we boarded the flight to Gatwick Airport and waved goodbye to the Med.  The flight to the UK went over the Italian and Swiss Alps, quite one of the most beautiful flights of the trip so far; crystal clear views of the Matterhorn and the perched lakes and hills, then rolling down into the central European plains, at which point it all went under thick cloud as we approached Blighty, of course!  

Welcome back to the UK.  But that is another chapter in this story……….

Prague - a brief visit

Why Prague?

Well, you might ask.  Whilst we did originally harbour a plan to drive from Split to Budapest, then Krakow and on to Prague in the 10 days following the Croatia sailing week, sanity and a better grasp of the distances involved prevailed, and we only planned the itinerary ending in Dubrovnik.  That was quite enough driving around for me.  Our next date was to catch up with David and Barbara for another week sailing on their boat in the Mediterranian, so we needed to get to Corfu from Croatia.  

On a map that looks easy -  drive or bus or train. For goodness sakes, its only 500km if you are a crow.  But, not so fast!  Albania is bandit country.  Road network is terrible. Cannot use hire car.  No southern rail link. A ferry is possible - via Bari in Italy, and then back across to Greece mainland, but not direct to Corfu, - peak season is over. It would have taken days, and was pricey.

A quick consult of my favourite flights web search engine, Skyscanner, showed our quickest and cheapest choice was via either Prague or Barcelona! So we do get to go to Prague - another First! At last.

So in the blog timeline it is Sunday 21st September - we fly to Prague for 4 days!

Prague - City of Beer and Meat

Trivia Fact. Only two countries drink more beer per head of population than the Czech Republic, Germany and  ........ Australia. Not sure if that includes sheilas in the headcount in Australia, would not be surprised if it did mate! (for our Aussi readers).

Jane looking good, and my beer looking ready to drink!

 We had booked an AirBnB apartment in the heart of the Prague Old Town. As usual, an excellent choice by Jane had us in a well equipped flat on the 6th floor of a refurbished block, right in the heart of the city.  A easy express bus ride from the Airport, just 30 minutes, and within an hour of arrival we were out shopping in the neighbourhood for our dinner.  We found a great deli that did all sorts of salads and cold meats and had a fabulous meal before tumbling into bed.  Great start.  

The next day we woke up, opened the windows and - boy, was it cold - about 12C, after Croatia's hot and sunny days.  At 50 degrees N it's on the same latitude as London, but continentally cold in winter.  

We started with a "free walking tour" with a very dramatic guide who insisted in recreating moments in history for us.  He took us around the Old Town on a swift orientation of the sights on the right bank (far bank, in picture below) of the river Viltava.  After a pretty average goulash and good beer for lunch, Jane and I went to revisit the more interesting sights.

Prague, castle on left, Old Town across the river.

We set off to investigate the old Jewish Quarter, which includes the oldest functional synagogue in Europe, the Old New Synagogue.  Nearby is the old Jewish Cemetry, thought to hold over 100,000 burials, from the 1300 onwards when the Jews were arriving in Prague after being expelled from all over the Holy Roman Empire.

Jewish Cemetery with no room for more.

The whole quarter was fascinating and steeped in history.  The Jews were originally put on marshy land near the river that regularly flooded, and it was only in the 18C that the precinct was rebuilt and raised above flood level.  So now when you visit the older building you go DOWN eight or ten steps to the original floor level!

Baroque madness - Pulpit in St Nic's. Where is the way up?

Then we walked around the old town.  We saw all the favourite sights and buildings on this side of the river.  Wenseslas Square, where the Prague Spring uprising was started, and then crushed in 1968. The old Town Hall with its wonderful 1495 clock that does historically amazing things when it chimes each hour.  It also tells the time in Babylon as well as the phases of the moon and astrological signs.  The view from the top of the Town Hall tower was pretty good too, especially the Church of our Lady before Tyn opposite.  

Lady of Tyn church from the Town Square.

We looked into the church of St Nicholas, with a dull exterior that belies the fabulous Rococo Baroque interior.  

Someone famous - cannot remember who?

The hollow cloaked statue is outside the State Theatre where Mozart premiered one of his operas. 

Prague was the centre of European cultural life for 1000 years and there are few events in European history that did not involve it in some way, from the Protestant reformation to the Thirty Years War and the rise and fall of the Hapsburg Empire, although this was mostly focused on the other side of the river in the Castle precinct, which includes the Cathedral, which was our sightseeing on day two.

The Castle precinct is huge, set on a hill on the left bank, and is really a collection of medieval and more recent buildings inside a fortified perimeter.  Inside are the usual castle buildings and the huge St Vitus Cathedral, as well other churches and cranky old buildings and the current Presidential offices and Apartments.

Beautiful St Vitus Cathedral

To get there you have to walk over the famous 14C Charles Bridge, now just pedestrianised, which has lots of historical connections.  The wonder is that much of the city was not destroyed by the Germans during the war, but it seems that Hitler was particularly fond of Prague, and planned to move there when he retired.  In particular there is a collection of many ancient Jewish religious artefacts in the synagogue collections, which were gathered from the many synagogues that were closed down when the Jews were being deported to concentration camps. Apparently Hitler planned some sort of a “Museum of the Culture of the Degenerate Peoples” for when Germany had won the war?? Madness……

Clothing in the Decorative Arts museum.

The last day included a visit to the Decorative Arts museum.  This is like a mini V&A museum, for those that remember that fabulous London museum.  It holds textiles, glassware, china and a room full of old and not so old clocks and watches. 

Tom joined us for the last day too and we had a great Czech meal the last evening, with goose, duck and various potatoes, sauerkraut and red cabbage dishes, and lots of beer!

More dead animals and beer! Delicious.

By the time we left Jane and I were almost getting used to the chillier conditions, but the weather forecasts for Corfu were for lots of sun and good sailing winds.  

So once again we packed our bags, headed off to the airport and were on our way to Greece.  See you there in the next post.